


Circled Date

by Geoduck



Series: Fruits Basket Parenthood [3]
Category: Fruits Basket
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Innuendo, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 05:50:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18309467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geoduck/pseuds/Geoduck
Summary: They ran out of the good coffee. Hatori had a headache.And Mayuko couldn't remember what the significance of the day was.





	Circled Date

Just like usual, she woke up at 6:00am on the dot. They had an alarm clock, but it was almost purely ornamental. He didn’t use it, because she always woke him up, and she didn’t need it, because her internal clock was just as reliable as any mechanical or electronic device.

She silently got out of bed and undressed--she remembered his bemused expression the first time he had seen her in a t-shirt and a pair of his old boxer shorts. A sexy look it wasn’t, but comfy.

Besides, if she wasn’t sexy enough for him as-is, then a couple of pieces of lace sure weren’t going tip the balance in her favor.

She put on her preferred running gear for the warmer months: bike shorts and a snug tank top. At the door, she slipped on her jogging shoes, and set out.

She loved early morning jogs. The shops were still mostly closed, and only some delivery trucks and a few early commuters were out on the street. There weren’t many other joggers, but she smiled at the memory of the time she did happen to encounter Kaibara’s boy’s soccer club on a jog of their own. They certainly hadn’t expected to see Mayuko-sensei in tight-fitting exercise gear. The team captain had been so flustered after that, he turned red and was unable to look her in the eye every time they encountered each other at school since.

When was that again? It must have been around a year ago. A few months after she and Hatori had finally gotten married.

A year ago. Why did that phrase come to mind all of a sudden?

* * *

She cursed under her breath as she looked in the cabinets. They were all out of the good coffee. She had meant to buy some, but it must have slipped her mind. It didn’t bug her all that much, but Hatori would sulk if he didn’t get his jolt of caffeine.

Oh well, if it’s so important to him, there’s nothing stopping him from getting coffee. It’s not as though she doesn’t have a demanding job as well. Instant it would be. She filled up the kettle and turned it on.

No use dwelling on it. Might as well wake him up. She walked back into their bedroom and opened the blinds. The increase of light in the room had the desired effect. He stirred in bed.

“Rise and shine, sweetcheeks!”

He groaned in protest.

“You all up yet? Or just the one part?”

“Don’t be vulgar.”

“Aww, you usually like it when I’m vulgar.”

“You’re confusing vulgarity with… that other… thing.” He sat up and squinted his eyes, slowly becoming accustomed to the daylight.

“Sensuality?”

“Yes, that’s the word. Coffee?”

“Going to have to be instant. I just plugged in the kettle. Wanna shower?”

“No, you can go first.”

“Uh, I was actually thinking ‘simultaneous.’”

“Not this morning. I have a headache.”

“Headache? Isn’t that the cliched thing the woman is supposed to say?”

“I suppose.”

“You know, we don’t _have_ to have sex. It _can_ be just a shower together.”

“I know, and it does sound good. Just, not for this morning.”

Mayuko stood silently for a moment. “All right, then.” She headed to the bathroom.

She took no joy in her shower. There was something just in the back of her mind that was bugging her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. There was something she had forgotten. The more she tried to think about it, the more it eluded her.

* * *

Breakfast was uncharacteristically silent as she became a seething mass of unfocused frustration.

She had to leave to work before he did. This morning, she did so silently. As he got up to kiss her before she left, she pretended not to notice. She still felt frustrated, but the tiny cruelty of her snubbing him gave her a momentary thrill of relief.

Only momentarily, however. As the day continued, she grew gradually more irritated, briefly snapping when she felt herself being provoked by one of her students. After that incident, most of her pupils maintained a cowed silence.

By lunchtime, frustration had turned to guilt. There was no worse feeling in the world than knowing she had punished the innocent--that irritation had overcome her self-control. And her self-control was something she had long prided herself on.

She made a mental note to apologize to the pupil she had publicly scolded. But first things first. She dialed Hatori’s cell.

* * *

“It's just… I’m sorry.”

“I keep telling you, it’s all right. Everyone is entitled to bad days every now and then.”

“But I handled it so poorly. I took it out on you, when you hadn’t done anything wrong.”

“I wasn’t exactly easy to deal with this morning myself. I know that I can be difficult in the morning.”

“I was mean to you, on purpose.”

“Then, it’s certainly fortunate that I forgive you.”

“Dammit, be annoyed!”

“That’s not really my style.”

She didn’t say anything for a few seconds, so he spoke again. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a weather thing. I’ve noticed a number of people feeling a bit testy this time of year.”

“Time of year…” she repeated back in a monotone. It had come back. It had all come back. She remembered. “Ah, I need to go now. See you tonight.”

“Mayuko? I love you.”

“Yeah… me too.”

* * *

Even after the apology, there was a bit of an oppressive atmosphere at home that evening. Mayuko was holding something back from Hatori. He knew it, and she knew that he knew it. There was very little small talk exchanged.

Hatori was ill at ease with the situation. He knew the best would be for Mayuko to tell him herself what her concern was… if she could at all. After all, if it were something work-related, involving a student, she would be ethically obligated not to reveal it.

But after dinner, after the dishes, she addressed him quietly. “I had today’s date circled in the calendar. Do you know why?”

Not a birthday, not an anniversary. “I don’t know.”

“One year ago tonight, we talked about having a child.”

“Ah.”

“We're intelligent people. We can both do the maths. If we had a child, we’d both be over fifty by the time they graduated from high school. It would be harder for us. It would be increasingly difficult for us the later it happens. We won’t have the energy of youth to deal with an adolescent kid.”

Hatori nodded in acknowledgement, memories of the past conversation coming back to him.

“I’d… I’d love to be a mother. I’d love to bear our child. To raise our child. But if we did, I’d want to be a mother. Full time. And I’d have to give something up. My career.”

“You could still…”

“We already talked about teaching part-time, and leaves of absence, and everything. And maybe I could be okay with that. But being a homeroom teacher--having a class full of young people that I watch out for, and teach, and learn from--that’s part of what I am.”

Hatori noticed the tears collecting in the corner of her eyes.

“So in the end, we decided to leave it to chance, remember? I stopped taking the pill. If I got pregnant, then I become a mother. If not, I stay a teacher, and Japan’s future population drops by one.”

The tears started running down her face. “It’s been a year. I’m definitely not pregnant, okay? So I guess there’s no dilemma. We’ll keep the double income until we retire, and when one of us dies first, the other one can just get a dog for companionship, since there won’t be anyone else left.” She closed her mouth in a grim line.

Hatori reached over and held her in his arms. After a few moments, she put her arms around him as well, and relaxed. He started softly. “You know, when I first suggested we not use birth control for a year--that didn’t mean that I thought that we should give up after that.” Mayuko looked up at him. “Let’s throw away the calendar. As long as you want to try, and I want to try, let’s try. As for your career…” he paused, looking down to meet her eyes.

She finished the sentence he started: “It’s not like we have to decide everything right now, right?”

They kissed. She felt as though she were in an ocean of relief and calm.

As their lips broke apart, she ran a hand up and down his side. “Hatori?”

“Yes?”

“I didn’t buy coffee. If you want it, you can get off your ass and buy it yourself.”

“That’s fair.” He smiled wryly. “You’re really something, you know that? You’re so...”

“Needy? Obsessive? Devastatingly sexy?”

“Normal.”

She smiled. “Not a perfect answer, but I’ll take it.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last of the "Fruits Basket Parenthood" stories that I completed back in 2009, but never published. I started on a fourth, but only have about a single page written.
> 
> I have at least single-sentence summaries of the stories I still plan to write (Ritsu/Mitsuru, Kureno/Uo, Yuki/Machi, Kyo/Tohru, Haru/Rin, Momiji/OC, Kagura/OC, and Kisa/Hiro). Some will be more comedic, some more dramatic. At least one of them I plan to be all-out farce, while one of them is a tragedy.
> 
> It could be some time before I get to the next one: there's plenty of other writing I'd like to get done.


End file.
